Stephen Shortt

Updates & Posts

As vain as it sounds, I’ve been trying to record myself so I can see my form when shooting my compound bow in the hopes of improving my technique!
I’m shooting at Liffey Archers (http://www.liffeyarchers.com) in Dublin. For more information about our shoots and beginners courses, check out our site.

I recently visited the great city of Liverpool where I was apparently inducted into the Reds Supporters club when I went to Anfield to watch a game against Aston Villa.

As many people know I’ve never been a great supporter of any particular football team – or any sports team for that matter. I’ve never really gotten involved with team sports, I’m more of an individual sports enthusiast.

Rooting for the underdog…

I do, however, like the idea of Liverpool as a team and as a club. What little I know of them, they have had a very successful past, with a lot of titles and famous events. In recent times they have, however, fallen on hard times. I know they haven’t had a great run of things lately and have been pushed down the table and aren’t in great financial shape.Read More

I tend not to get worked up about things. There are a few things that will get me pretty heated but on the whole, I’m pretty chilled out and so long as no one is hurting anyone else, I let people do what makes them happy in life…

I’ve also haven’t considered myself a “catholic” since I think I’ve been old enough to make that kind of decision myself. I went to a catholic primary school, made my communion and confirmation but even at that stage I didn’t take it too seriously.

I do, however, feel pretty strongly about the catholic church in general. They are not good feelings…Read More

I’m a delighted to say I won a bronze medal yesterday at the Leinster Open Compound under 550!

I was shooting my new compound bow – only been shooting compound for 4 weeks! – and had new strings fitted last Sunday so the first round was all over the place as I tried to figure out my anchor point and sights.

You’ve probably seen this amazing letter doing the rounds on Facebook at the moment.

A 3 and a half year old girl sent in a question about the bread in Sainsburys and the customer manager wrote back a very human letter in response and included a £3 gift certificate for the girl.

It’s a great example of how businesses should really be talking with their customers, especially ones who reach out to you.

The letter could easily have been thrown in the bin or disregarded as a waste of the managers time but the fact that he took the time to write a response to her – importantly, writing it at her level and in her language – makes it something people want to talk about and share.

You might say that £3 wasn’t a lot to give someone and for all the publicity it’s a tiny amount but I don’t think the monetary value is what’s important here.

Some cynics have even asked if it’s all staged but I would like to think that it’s just a case of people in business doing what they should be doing…

Clay Shirky gave a great TED talk about why the SOPA bill in the USA was a bad idea and it has rightly been quashed under increased internet pressure.

Here in Ireland it would appear we have a smilar issue but it won’t be discussed by the government but will be just written into law by a junior minister.

This would not be a good idea I think as it would cause the same problems as the US were trying to avoid and would essentially mean the end of access to sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc and if you can’t use these sites here I would imagine their parent companies who all have their European headquarters or major offices here, wouldn’t be staying very long and their jobs would go with them…

I just found out about this site – Minus – which allows you to share all kinds of files privately and publicly. It’s easier to use and link to the specific file than I’ve found with DropBox (which I won’t be getting rid of, great for syncing folders and files from home and office!).